hxhfandomcom-20200215-history
Kurapika
|jname = クラピカ |rname = Kurapika |name = Kurapika |backcolor = 1D26A7 |textcolor = ffffff |first = Chapter 2; Episode 2 (1999); Episode 1 (2011) |jva = Yuki Kaida (1999); Miyuki Sawashiro (2011) |other = Cheryl McMaster (English, 1999) |gender = Male |age = 17 |birthday = April 4 |hair = Blonde (1999) |eye = Teal (1999); Dark Grey (2011) |height = 171 cm |relative = Kurta clan (deceased) |weight = 59 kg |blood = AB |occupation = Blacklist Hunter, Bodyguard |type = Conjuration; Specialization |nen = Emperor Time; Conjured Chains }}Kurapika is one of the four protagonists of Hunter x Hunter and applicant #404 in the 287th Hunter Exam. He swore vengeance on everyone involed in the massacre of his clan. Appearance Kurapika has a somewhat feminine appearance with medium blonde hair and normally brown eyesVol 8, p.181. They are blue in the 1999 anime adaptation and gray in the 2011 series. Later, he uses black contact lenses to hide the fact that his eyes turn scarlet when he is angered. In the beginning of the series, he wears a blue cape-like outer garment with a mandarin collar and orange hem (red hem in the 2011 series), a white full-body training suit underneath, a pair of blue Chinese style flats, and a single silver diamond-shaped drop earring in his left ear. The earring is not seen anymore afterwards. Personality Kurapika is level-headed, intelligent, and knowledgeable. He can appear cold and distant due to his incessant drive to avenge his clan. Only his companions Gon, Leorio, Killua, and Melody seem to have thawed his often icy demeanor. Background Kurapika is a member of the Kurta clan, a reticent group of people who choose to live in obscurity in the Lukso Province. They possess eyes that turn flaming scarlet in times of anger or emotional agitation, and the color remains eternally in the irises after their death. Due to their legendary brilliance, the scarlet eyes have long become highly sought-after items by treasure collectors. Four years prior the start of the main story, the Phantom Troupe came to Kurapika's village and massacred all the other members of his clan, leaving behind scores of dead bodies with eyes gouged out. As the last survivor of his clan, Kurapika vows to retrieve all the stolen eyes of his people and to hunt down the Phantom Troupe, even if he must sacrifice his life in the process. Plot 287th Hunter Exam arc Preliminary Phase Kurapika is first seen on board a ship that goes from Whale Island to a testing site of the 287th Hunter Exam. He, Gon and Leorio are the only 3 candidates unaffected by a storm the night before. The captain reveals that he is an examiner and asks them why they want to become Hunters. With some reluctance, Kurapika replies that being a Hunter will make it possible for him capture the Phantom Troupe. Leorio on the other hand says he is only interested in the material possessions that the Hunter's status will give him. The two have a quarrel over their different aims and decide to end it with a fight out on the deck amidst another storm. When they are about to start, a crew member named Katzo is knocked off the deck by a piece of wood broken off from a yard. Gon jumps off the ship to catch him and in turn is kept from falling into the sea by Kurapika and Leorio. After the incident they become friendly with each other. Seeing that, the captain is pleased and decides to take the trio to Dolle Harbor, the harbor closest to the exam site in Zaban City. At Dolle, the captain advises Gon to head for a cedar tree atop a nearby mountain to get to Zaban City faster. Kurapika and Leorio follow him. On the way, they encounter a group of masked people and an old lady in a deserted alley. The lady, also an examiner, asks them a question which they only have 5 seconds to answer. The question is such a dilemma that none of them can give an answer within due time. Getting annoyed, Leorio picks up a wooden stick and attacks her but Kurapika blocks him and explain that they have passed because keeping silent is the correct answer to this question. The old lady then tells them to go to a cabin built under the cedar tree to find a couple who will be their navigators if they consider the trio qualified. Upon entering the cabin, they see a wounded man lying on the floor and a woman being held captive by a Kiriko. The monster flees immediately. Telling Leorio to take care of the husband, Kurapika and Gon chase after it and force it to let go of the wife. Kurapika catches her and notices the strange tatoos on her hands and face. Leorio then shows up and says the husband is fine and sleeping. As he finishes, Kurapika suddenly hits him in the face with a wooden sword. It turns out this Leorio is a Kiriko in disguise. After the monster runs away, he asks the wife who she really is, to which her answer is a strange smile. Meanwhile Gon is able to tell 2 almost identical-looking Kirikos apart, greatly surprising them. The 2 Kirikos and the fake married couple, who are actually their son and daughter, then explain to the trio how they have qualified for the next test--Kurapika having vast knowledge, Leorio having good medical skill and confidence, and Gon having extraordinary movements and observations--and fly them to Zaban City. First Phase At the starting site of the first phase, a large tunnel, Kurapika, Leorio and Gon see a lot of experts. Tonpa, nicknamed the Rookie Crusher, offers them 3 cans of his laxative-spiked drink but Kurapika and Leorio pour it away after Gon, thanks to his heightened sense of taste, detects a strange flavor. An examiner, Satotz, then appears and tells the candidates to follow him through the tunnel. He runs faster and faster but Kurapika has little problem keeping up with him. While running, the trio make friends with Killua. Kurapika then reveals to Leorio the story about the stolen scarlet eyes of his people and his determination to retrieve them all and capture the Phantom Troupe. In return, Leorio reveals his true reason for wanting to be a Hunter--he needs a lot of money to become a doctor of the poor. The marathon finally ends when they reach the Numere Wetlands. Satotz warns them of the dangers in the swamp and tells them to carefully follow him through it to the site of Phase Two in another marathon. On the way, Kurapika, Leorio and a number of other candidates are attacked by Hisoka, a man notorious for his murderous tendencies. All of them are killed in a short time, except for him, Leorio and Cherry, examinee #76. Knowing that they stand no chance against Hisoka, they split up in 3 different directions. After a while, Kurapika returns and sees Gon kneeling there with a shocked expression on his face. Together they run to the site of Phase Two in the Visca Forest Reserve, and on the way Gon tells Kurapika about what happened to him and Leorio. Second Phase Kurapika and Gon manage to reach the site of Phase Two just before Satotz announces the end of Phase One. At noon, the examiners, 2 Gourmet Hunters named Menchi and Buhara, appear. Buhara starts this phase by asking the applicants to cook a whole roast pig. Even though the kind of pig that they need to catch, the Great Stamp, is the most dangerous pig in the world, Kurapika, his 3 friends and many other contestants have little difficulty passing the test after they discover that these pigs have a weak spot on their foreheads. The next test, however, proves to be a real problem as the other examiner Machi asks them to make nigiri sushi. Despite having read some books about this dish and carefully analyzing the hints that Hanzo, a contestant from the home country of sushi, and Menchi unintentionally give away, Kurapika is still failed like the rest because Menchi is too picky when it comes to cooking. When the second phase is on the verge of having no qualifier, Chairman Netero of the Hunters Association arrives in an airship, criticizes Menchi for losing her temper as an examiner and tells her to administer another test which she herself also has to take. This time Menchi asks them to cook boiled Spider-Eagle eggs, which hang from strong strings connecting the two sides of a deep ravine on Mt. Mafutatsu. Even though they have to jump into the ravine to retrieve an egg, Kurapika and 41 other examinees pass the test and are subsequently taken to the site of Phase Three in Netero's airship. Third Phase Phase Three starts atop the Trick Tower and they have 72 hours to get to the bottom of it alive. Kurapika and his 3 friends all end up in the Path of Majority Rules. They are forced to form a team of 5 with Tonpa in order to advance, using the majority rule several times on the way. Their road leads them to a platform set up in the middle of a bottomless abyss where they are required to participate in a series of 5 no-hold-barred one-on-one matches against 5 long-term prisoners who want to stall them to have their sentences reduced. Tonpa volunteers to fight first and he deliberately forfeits the match to undermine his teammates. Gon's match is the second and thanks to his quick thinking he manages a win to level the score at 1 - 1. The 3rd match is Kurapika's and his opponent is Majitani, an impostor with a spider tatoo on the back who brags about his fake Phantom Troupe membership to Kurapika. Enraged, his eyes turn scarlet and he knocks Majitani down with a single punch. However the match is still going on because he refuses to kill his seemingly unconscious opponent despite his teammates' complaints. After waiting for some time, Leorio gets impatient and wants to check if Majitani is dead. A cunning female prisoner, Leroute, challenges him to a series of bets using time. Leorio wins some of them, forcing Majitani to admit defeat in the process, but due to his inexperience and perversion he loses the other bets and his own match, resulting in a 2 - 2 score and causing his team to lose 50 hours. Even though Killua quickly kills his opponent, Johness the Dissector, in the last match, putting the final score at 3 - 2 in their favor, Kurapika's team has less than 10 hours left to reach the bottom. As they advance, they have to use the majority rule some more times and face many other obstacles such as electric quizzes, multiple choice labyrinth, etc., but thanks to a brilliant idea of Gon's in choosing ways, they manage to reach the bottom of the tower with just 30 seconds remaining, thus qualifying for the 4th Phase. Fourth Phase During Phase Four, the remaining 24 examinees have to take part in a 7-day manhunt among themselves on Zevil Island to capture each other's badges. Kurapika's designated target is Tonpa whose target in turn is Leorio. On day 2, after Leorio is tricked by Tonpa and Sommy and loses his badge, Kurapika suddenly appears, knocks Tonpa down, takes his badge and asks Leorio to team up with him, to which Leorio agrees. They then force Sommy to surrender Leorio's badge and the badge #118 at knifepoint. Even though Kurapika already has 6 points from his own and Tonpa's badges, he still helps Leorio find his target Ponzu, applicant #246. At night, they again encounter Hisoka who tells them to give him their badges if they want to live. Kurapika says they will give him the badge #118 which is worth 1 point to them but they will fight with their lives to protect the other 3 badges. Hisoka accepts the badge and lets them go. At the end of day 6, he and Leorio meet Gon and tell him about Ponzu. Gon helps them find her by tracking the smell of the medicine that she uses to defend herself. They finally find her, but together with her they are trapped in a cave full of snakes whose owner Bourbon, examinee #103, is already dead due to anaphylactic shock caused by her bees. Thanks to Gon's bravery and ability to hold his breath for an extended period of time, all of them are able to get out of this situation by using Ponzu's soporific gas to put the snakes to sleep. Before they go, Gon takes the badge #246 from a sleeping Ponzu and leaves her the badge #103. With this, Kurapika and his 2 friends qualify for the next and also the last phase. Final Phase The Final Phase is a reverse one-on-one elimination tournament--the winner of a match will be removed from the competition and become a Hunter while the losers will keep fighting until there is only one left, and killing is not permitted. Kurapika's first opponent is Hisoka. After fighting for a while, Hisoka whispers something to him and concedes, allowing him to pass the exam. When Illumi wants to go murder Gon, he, Leorio, Hanzo, and some examiners block his way. Later he also requests that the Hunters Association examines the true nature of Killua's murder of contestant #191, Bodoro, during the last phase and has a brief argument with Pokkle who won by default when Killua gave up against him, saying bluntly he was too boring to fight. But they make up with each other after the exam is over. He then decides to go with Gon and Leorio to Kukuroo Mountain to rescue Killua from the control of his family. Zoldyck Family arc The trio arrive at the entrance of the Zoldyck estate, the Testing Gate, on Kukuroo Mountain on a tour bus. They tell the old gatekeeper, Zebro, that they are Killua's friends but he refuses to let them pass until they can at least push open the 1st door which weighs 4 tons, because entering the estate in any other way they will get killed by the huge guard dog named Mike. They then accept Zebro's invitation to stay in his house to train, using his heavy equipments. After 20 days, all of them are able to open a testing doorVol 5, p.108 and head for the Zoldyck house atop the mountain without any problem until they are stopped at another gate by a female servant named Canary. She beats Gon up to prevent them from advancing but thanks to Gon's insistence, she softens towards them and finally asks them to save Killua. Kikyo Zoldyck then suddenly appears with her son Kalluto, knocks Canary unconscious, passes Killua's message on and tells them to leave, but after regaining consciousness Canary leads them to the butlers' quarters. While waiting for Killua in the butlers' house, they are forced into playing a coin guessing game against some butlers of the family with the stake being Canary's lifeVol 5, p.155 which they manage to win. Killua at last arrives and leaves the Zoldyck estate together with them. Kurapika then tells his 3 friends what Hisoka whispered to him during the final phase--He would wait for Kurapika in Yorknew City, where the world's largest auctions take place, on September 1st to tell him something interesting about the Phantom TroupeVol 5, p.171-172. There are 6 months until that day so Kurapika says he is going to look for some work as a Hunter and bids farewell to them. They all agree to meet up in Yorknew City on September 1st. Yorknew City arc At the flesh collector's mansion Some time after parting company with his friends, Kurapika successfully finds an employment agency specializing in providing rich and famous people with bodyguards and hirelings. However, he is immediately told that his Hunter License is not enough for him to get a job. The agent then says his exam has not finished and tells him to come back when he is able to see auraVol 6, p.136. At the beginning of August, Kurapika comes to the mansion of a collector of body parts to apply for a jobVol 8, p.69. It turns out he mastered Nen in merely 6 months and deliberately looked for a customer who had strong connections with the auctions in Yorknew City. In the mansion he meets 5 other people: Baise, Basho, Melody, Shachmono Tocino, and Squala. A man shows up on the screen in the hall where they are waiting and tells them they will at least have to get out of the mansion alive in order to be hired. As he finishes, 11 people who wear black hooded robes and masks suddenly appear and attack them with handguns and swords. Using his Dowsing Chain, Kurapika blocks a number of bullets fired at him and jumps onto a chandelier to avoid the sword users and observe the situation. Noticing that Tocino is the only person who is not being attacked, he jumps down, puts a knife at Tocino's throat and orders him to stop the attackers in 3 seconds. Tocino obeys by cancelling the Black Assistants and tells them that he is a Hunter ordered by the owner of the mansion to test them and that there is another infiltratorVol 8, p.87. Kurapika uses his Dowsing Chain again and finds out that Squala is the other infiltrator, which is further confirmed by Melody's, Basho's and Baise's techniques. He and the 3 other genuine applicants thus pass the test. Later, after each of them have completed another mission of finding a rare body part, they are all officially employed by the man who was on the screen previously, DalzolleneVol 8, p.126-127. In Yorknew City Kurapika and co's first task is to guard their boss on a journey to Yorknew City, where they will be participating in the Mafia's underground auction. The boss turns out to be Neon Nostrade, the daughter of the Nostrade clan's leader. Neon, besides being spoilt, is also a Specialist whose ability Lovely Ghostwriter allows her to make accurate predictions about the future. Her father has been using her ability to gain high status within the Mafia, hence the need for a large number of bodyguards. They arrive in Yorknew City on September 1st and in the evening the underground auction is attacked by the Phantom Troupe who want to steal all the auction items. All the clients, including 3 of Kurapika's comrades, are slaughtered. However, having been warned about a possible attack via Neon's predictions, one of the Shadow Beasts, the best 10 Nen users within the Mafia, has already removed all the items from the vault. Believing that the Troupe have stolen the items, the Mafiosi in Yorknew City give chase, and Kurapika is instructed to join in. The Troupe decide to confront the Mafia in hopes of luring out the Shadow Beasts to question them about the auction items. One of them, Uvogin, is an extremely strong Enhancer and he single-handedly massacres a large number of armed Mafiosi. Four of the Shadow Beasts then appear and attack him. Even though they manage to injure and paralyze Uvogin, they are ultimately killed by him. Seeing the spider tatoo on Uvogin's back, Kurapika flies into a rage. Despite his comrades' discouragement, he goes forward, takes advantage of the situation to capture Uvogin using his Chain Jail then runs away in a car with his comrades. The Troupe immediately chase after them, but their pursuit is stopped by the arrival of the remaining Shadow Beasts. All of these Shadow Beasts however are killed quickly, except for Owl who is tortured into confessing that he has the items. In a building owned by the Nostrade family Dalzollene tries to torture Uvogin to know where the items are. Despite being unharmed, Uvogin reveals that the Shadow Beasts took the items away. He also suggests that if they release him immediately, he will spare their lives. Kurapica questions Uvogin about his colleagues. On hearing that they were all killed as planned, he angrily punches Uvogin in the face, slightly damaging his nose. Dalzollene dissuades him and calls other Mafiosi in to take Uvogin in custody. Kurapika then leaves to meet Hisoka. Shortly afterwards, the Troupe arrive, dressed as Mafia members. They kill Dalzollene, cure Uvogin's paralysis and free him. Hearing his furious shouts upon release, Kurapika's teammates escape in time. Finding no one, Uvogin swears to hunt down the chain user. Meanwhile at their rendezvous, Hisoka tells Kurapika he joined the Troupe only to fight Chrollo and offers to team up with him. Kurapika tells Hisoka to meet again the next day, September 3rd, at the same time. Meeting up with his teammates later in the early hours of September 2nd, Kurapika suggests that they get Neon to contact her father Light Nostrade to ask for his advice. Light promotes Kurapika to team leader and makes arrangements to meet them later. Knowing Uvogin can find them using information on the Hunters website, Kurapika tells everyone to move to another room while he stays to confront him. In the evening Uvogin finally manages to track him down. They agree to go to the desert outside the city to face off in a Nen battle. Thanks to the Emperor Time ability and his clever use of the Chain Jail and In, Kurapika successfully captures Uvogin and deprives him of his Nen. He then ties his Judgement Chain around Uvogin's heart and asks him information about the other members of the Troupe. Because Uvogin refuses to answer, the chain automatically crushes his heart, killing him. Kurapika then buries his corpse in the desert. Kurapika's defeat of Uvogin makes him the main target of the Phantom Troupe, who begin to actively search for him. On September 3rd, they accidentally capture Gon and Killua. One of them, Pakunoda, has the ability of mind-reading through touching. Since neither Gon nor Killua knows the chain user is Kurapika, Pakunoda assumes that they have nothing to do with him. Shortly afterwards, Killua realizes that Kurapika is the one the Troupe are searching for, but luckily he and Gon manage to escape at night, before she can question them again. Just before Gon and Killua's capture, Kurapika meets Light Nostrade. He is promoted to head bodyguard and learns that the Ten Dons have hired professional assassins to eliminate the Troupe. Light wants him to join the assassination team. After meeting up with the assassins on the night of September 3rd, he and Light are told Neon has slipped away from her guards. Using the Dowsing Chain, he finds out she is in the Cemetery Building, which is once again attacked by the Troupe in revenge for Uvogin. Most of the hired assassins and 2,000 Mafia gangsters protecting it are wiped out quickly. Two elite assassins, Zeno and Silva Zoldyck, almost succeed in killing the Troupe's leader, Chrollo, but just before they can finish him, Illumi Zoldyck calls and tells them he has assassinated the Ten Dons in a mission whose client is Chrollo. The Zoldycks thus spare his life and leave. The Troupe then fake their own deaths, create copies of all the items and put the fakes up for auction. Kurapica arrives just in time to see the fake corpses and win the last item: a pair of fake Scarlet Eyes. The next day, September 4th, he meets up with Gon, Killua and Leorio. He reveals the secrets of his Nen abilities and his connection with Hisoka to them, knowing that they are true friends. Now that Gon and Killua have learned of his abilities, they realize the threat Pakunoda poses. In the late afternoon he receives a message from Hisoka saying the corpses are fakes. Kurapika decides to keep chasing the Phantom Troupe alone but Leorio, Killua and Gon insist on helping him despite knowing they may die. He says their only target is Pakunoda then asks Killua to watch the Troupe's hideout and keep him informed, Leorio to be his driver and Gon to distract the other members of the Troupe when he captures her. Soon afterwards he phones Melody, asking her to assist Killua. When tailing the Troupe, Kurapika is cornered by 3 members. He is ready for combat but Gon and Killua let the Troupe capture them again to save him, knowing he will not stand a chance against multiple opponents. Pakunoda reads their minds once more and finds out who Kurapika is. However, thanks to the help of Leorio and Melody, Kurapika manages to capture Chrollo and escape before Pakunoda can reveal what she knows. He leaves a message, threatening to kill Chrollo if she says anything. He then calls the Troupe, telling them to return to their hideout except for Pakunoda, who will have to go to Lingon Airport to negotiate a hostage exchange. At the airport, Kurapika decides that saving his friends is more important than taking revenge. Thus, he only uses his Judgement Chain to forbid Chrollo to talk to the other members or to use Nen. As for Pakunoda, he forbids her to reveal any information about him and tells her to bring Gon and Killua to the airport alone before midnight. After the exchange, Kurapika has a fever for a day due to his continual use of Emperor Time. On September 7th, when he has fully recovered, he leaves Yorknew City with Melody to continue his search for the Scarlet Eyes. Greed Island Arc Kurapika makes a short reappearance during the Greed Island Arc when Killua calls him, telling him about the possibility of the Judgement Chain he imposed on Chrollo having been removed, but Kurapika assures Killua that it is still staying in Chrollo body. After that, he has a short conversation with Light Nostrade, who is in a state of great confusion due to the loss of his daughter's prophetic ability. New Hunter Chairman Election Arc Kurapika is one of the absentees during the first 4 rounds of the election, despite the reappearances of his comrades under Light Nostrade such as Senritsu and Basho. He hasn't visited the hospital where Gon is being given intensive-care treatment and is not available on the phone either, which makes Leorio wonder what he may be doing. Nen Abilities Kurapika is a Conjurer, who can create objects out of his aura by imagining. The weapon that he conjures is a set of five chains that extend from the fingers of his right hand. Some of the chains were specially designed to deal with the Phantom Troupe. The chains can be concealed by using "In," allowing him to bind his opponent without their knowledge until it's too late. Emperor Time (Absolute Mastery) When Kurapika's eyes turn scarlet, he shifts from a Conjurer to a Specialist. This state is called Emperor Time, and it allows him to use all types of Nen to the maximum efficiency that a Conjurer can possibly achieve. In Emperor Time mode, Kurapika's 'levels' in the various Nen categories remain the same, however his efficiency for every category is raised to 100%. For example, during Emperor Time, his level in Emission would be 4, and he would be evenly matched against a Level 4 Emitter at 100%, but outside of Emperor Time, his efficiency in Emission would at most be only be 40%. Other Skills Kurapika has good physical strength as he was able to open the first door of the Testing Gate, weighing 4 tons, without using Nen. His strength seems to increase whenever his scarlet eyes are activated. He is also quite adept at using two wooden swords. Trivia * Kurapika ranked second in all of the 3 popularity polls that have been conducted so far by Weekly Shounen Jump. References Category:Characters Category:Males Category:Hunters Category:Nen users Category:Specialists Category:Conjurers Category:Examinees